Tag Archives: brownies

You know when you buy something and can’t remember what you intended to do with it? Normally this is fine. Vegetables just go into whatever I was planning to make next. The rest goes into either the freezer or pantry until I actually need it. Or else I just eat it. But the thing with Greek yoghurt is that I love how it tastes when something has been done to it, but I don’t like it quite enough to eat an entire pot. So… brownies! What I really like about these brownies isn’t just the taste – it’s how easy they are to deal with after baking. They’re rich and chocolately, not too sweet, gooey like all brownies should be, but the yoghurt makes them lighter and somehow holds them together better. You don’t need to leave them to set. You don’t need to be careful taking them out of the pan. Just take them out of the oven, slice, and eat. Beautiful.

Stage one: Preheat the oven to 180C/fan160C. Put the dark chocolate and butter in a bowl, and put the bowl on top of a small saucepan filled with about an inch of water over a medium heat. Melt them, stirring occasionally, and then remove from the heat and leave to cool.

Stage two: Sift the flour and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl, and then mix in the sugar and vanilla extract. Pour in the chocolate-butter mixture and stir until everything is combined, then add the yoghurt, and finally stir in the eggs. You’ll now have a thick, glossy batter.

Stage three: Dollop the batter into a 20x20cm baking tin, and pop in the oven for 20-25 minutes. You can tell a brownie is done by gently shaking the tin, and if the brownie doesn’t wobble, it’s done.

Raspberry brownies are one of your five a day. Yes, you’ll need to eat 8 of them, but that’s not necessarily a problem. The base of these brownies is from BBC good food, which is by far the best brownie recipe I have ever tasted. My rule for whether a brownie is good is whether it tastes more chocolatey than chocolate. I need it to smack me in the mouth with chocolate. This brownie does. It is chewy and gooey and not too sweet. It is good to take to picnics and things that are summery and wonderful.

Stage one: Roughly chop up the butter and break up the dark chocolate into chunks, then put them in a glass bowl. Quarter fill a small saucepan with boiling water, then put the glass bowl on top so that the bottom of the bowl is not touching the boiling water. Heat gently until the butter and chocolate have melted. Carefully remove them from the heat and set aside to cool.

Stage two: Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C. Prep a 20×20 baking pan. I have a wonderful silicon pan that I prep by taking out of the cupboard and putting on the counter, which suits me very well. Sift the flour and the cocoa powder into a bowl and set aside. Roughly chop the white chocolate into whatever size chunks you like best. If you want to use chocolate chips then that’s good too. I prefer to make my own chocolate chunks because I get more control over what kind of chocolate is going in, and how big the chunks are. Also the chocolatey crumbs make me happy.

Stage three: Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until pale and doubled in size. Then, using a wooden spoon, very gently mix the melted chocolate mixture into the egg mix until mottled. You don’t need to overdo it, because when you add the dry mix it will all come together.

Stage four: Mix in the dry mixture until you can’t see any flour left. Then add the white chocolate and half of the raspberries and give a quick stir. Pour/scoop it into your brownie pan, then pop the remaining raspberries on top.

Stage five: Pop in the oven and bake for about 35 minutes. This time can vary, especially since my oven is really really keen so it may well take longer in less hyper ovens. You can tell when the brownie is done by gently shaking it from side to side. If the brownie wobbles (a little wobble is OK, an earthquake is less OK) then bake 5 minutes more. If you prefer a firmer brownie then bake for longer. Wait 15 mins before even trying to take the brownies out of the pan to avoid a gooey mess everywhere, then put on the cooling rack. The cooling stage is actually what makes all the difference in this brownie. I prefer raw cake mix to most cakes so I assumed that this rule did not apply to me, but no, the brownie is a million times better an hour after coming out of the oven. Trust me.